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Ex-Microsoft exec killed with son in Connecticut plane crash

At the controls was Bill Henningsgaard, flying his son on a tour of U.S. universities. Two children also died on the ground.

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A small plane crashed into a residential area of East Haven, Conn. on Friday, likely killing four to six people, authorities said.(The Associated Press)

By John ChristoffersenThe Associated Press

Sat., Aug. 10, 2013

EAST HAVEN, CONN.—A former Microsoft vice-president was killed along with his teenage son when the small plane they were flying crashed into two houses in a suburban Connecticut neighbourhood.

A family member said the pilot was Bill Henningsgaard, who was taking his son Maxwell, who was to finish high school in 2014, on a tour of East Coast colleges.

Two children, ages 1 and 13, were also killed on the ground, according to local authorities. Their bodies were pulled from the two houses hit by the plane.

Anthony Moscato, deputy chief of the East Haven Fire Department, said the four are believed to be the only victims.

The family learned it was Bill Henningsgaard’s plane through the tail number, said his brother Blair, the city attorney in Astoria, Ore.

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Connecticut officials said Henningsgaard was set to land at Tweed-New Haven Airport — apparently to visit nearby Yale University — but missed the approach and attempted a second approach.

Fire and rescue personnel surround the site of a plane crash in East Haven, Connecticut August 9, 2013. (GLENN DUDA / REUTERS)

Joann Mitchell, middle, is seen with supporters at a vigil at Margaret Tucker Park in East Haven, Conn., on Saturday. Mitchell is the mother of Sade Brantley, 13, and Madisyn Mitchell, 1, the two girls who died inside their East Haven home when a plane crashed into it Friday. (Brad Horrigan / HARTFORD COURANT/MCT)

Officials inspect the debris on Saturday after a small plane, piloted by Bill Henningsgaard, crashed into two homes Friday in East Haven, Conn. Four people were killed in the incident. (Peter Hvizdak / NEW HAVEN REGISTER/AP)

Investigators shine a flashlight into the back of a house on Charter Oak Avenue in East Haven, Connecticut, after a plane crashed into it on Friday morning, August 9, 2013. (Cloe Poisson / MCT)

An official surveys the scene of a plane crash in East Haven, Conn., in which the pilot and his teenaged son were killed, along with two children in the two houses hit by the doomed plane. (Richard Messina / MCT)

They said there was no distress call from the plane, which the Federal Aviation Administration said was a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, a multi-engine turboprop aircraft.

Henningsgaard is listed as the registered agent of Ellumax Leasing in Medina, Wash., according to Washington state records. Ellumax is the registered owner of the plane that crashed, FAA records show.

It wasn’t Henningsgaard’s first crash. In April 2009, he crash-landed his small plane in the Columbia River when the engine quit as he was flying from Astoria to Seattle. He and his 84-year-old mother climbed out on a wing and were rescued by a passing boat as the plane began to sink.

Henningsgaard was a currently member of Seattle-based Social Venture Partners, a foundation that connects philanthropists and strengthens non-profits. The foundation extended its condolences to his wife and two daughters.

“There are hundreds of people that have a story about Bill — when he went the extra mile, when he knew just the right thing to say, how he would never give up. He was truly all-in for this community, heart, mind and soul,” the foundation wrote on its website.

Henningsgaard worked for about 14 years at Microsoft in various sales and marketing roles, including as vice-president of sales for the Western U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

After leaving Microsoft, he became heavily involved in local social-service and philanthropy efforts, helping start Eastside Pathways, which works to support the area’s youth from “cradle to career.”

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